Darius Knight Interview

Darius Knight is one of England's top table tennis players.Find out more about him in this exclusive interview.

Darius was born in London on 22 February 1990 and is currently ranked at number 2 in England, just behind his friend Paul Drinkhall.

He also has a current European ranking (under 21 years) of number 10, a World ranking (under 21 years) of number 39, and a senior World ranking of 287.

Darius is definitely a young player with plenty of promise.

On 28 January 2010, I caught up with Darius Knight and managed to ask him a few questions.

Hi Darius,

Thanks for sharing your time with me here at All About Table Tennis.com

Q

Please tell us about your own web site.

A

My website www.dariusknight.com was in the planning stages for a few years, but I never really got it off the ground as I was so busy.
It's now done by a close friend of mine who grew up with me over the years.

In the past it has been VISA and a few others, but now it's solely Fred Perry.

They help me financially to pay for competitions in the UK and outside of the UK!

I get amazing clothes, from the casual and sporty, and every year we have the Fred Perry Urban Cup which gives back to
table tennis in my and their own way with the English Table Tennis Association helping thousands of kids to play from all parts of the UK.

Many of my readers ask me whether professional table tennis players earn a reasonable income.
What are your views on this, and what are your views on the level of prize money available?
Can you also give us an indication of how a top professional table tennis player earns his money?
In your experience, what level of world ranking do you need to achieve to be able to make a living from playing table tennis?

A

It depends how lucky you are with sponsors.

I know in my position I make a little bit of money, but then it goes back into table tennis - whether it's going to China, buying running shoes or other things. All these little things add up.

Some of my expenses are taken care of, so maybe someone who makes £5,000 in table tennis is like £7,000 for a person with a normal job - because a lot of the time my travelling is catered for.

And once you are playing for your country, it's the national teams job to look after you. That also happens when you're playing for a professional table tennis club. But it also depends on their policy.

It's said that if you're ranked top in the world, money isn't a problem as you possibly may get money from your equipment supplier, money from your club, national team and olympic committee.

Personally I think the level of prize money is not the best in England. For example, in a grand prix event, sometimes even if you win, you just about gain. That means just a few pounds.

It's hard to say what world ranking you need because every country is different. But for a good living I would say anything from 100 or better, depending on where you are from.

World ranking is important when negotiating club contracts, as it's proof of your playing level. But then you will get some players who don't have a great world ranking but can always deliver in club matches.

But for how hard the sport is, and everything that's involved, I think it's definitely nowhere near enough money, especially if you compare it to football, tennis, rugby or any of those kinds of sports.

What do you think about the current state of world table tennis and what do you think
should be done in order to make the game more popular?Do you think that any rules need changing? Do you think that there are too few or too many events and tournaments?

A

I don't think the rules need to be changed because in the last few years there have been more changes than anything.

I think in the UK there was a drought for so long that it became less popular. But now we have a group of young players coming along which always helps the popularity.

I think that there are too many events, but I would prefer to be active rather than there to be nothing.

I think to grab people's attention it should be named after things - like the Ryder Cup in golf. We have the European Champions League, those kind of things.

There would be so much interest from the public if they saw a Ryder Cup of table tennis, with tension on each point or set.

To get people interested in table tennis, we should almost have the same set up as tennis.

What do you think about the current state of table tennis in England? Is there a good structure in place?

A

I think it has improved over the last 5 years.

England players have won European titles at Cadet and Junior level in 2005, 2006, 2007 & 2008. As well as myself, Paul Drinkhall, Gavin Evans and Liam Pitchford have all won gold and silver medals at these events.

Paul Drinkhall and I also won gold & silver medals at the ITTF World Junior Circuit in 2007, and Paul Drinkhall was the World Junior Championship silver medallist in 2008.

We also won bronze medals at the Commonwealth Games.

The England men's team has just got into the top category in the European mens. We are the youngest team by a margin.

But we don't have any top World ranked England players to follow like the Germans and French do!

I don't know if there's a good structure. If there was, we would have more players like us. I'm not too sure. I'm not saying there isn't, but France is a country that continues to produce young players every year in the Juniors and Cadets. I think that's a start.

It takes some or most young players a few years to break into the seniors and really start to do something.